Thinking in Codons

by User:Guzz

Why I think Codons might be relevant:

There are four nucleotides in immature RNA (AGTU). Each of these can be expressed in binary as two bits (e.g., A [00], G [01], T [10] and U [11]). A codon is a three nucleotide sequence which represents either an amino acid or a stop. Therefore, an amino acid can be expressed in a series of six bits. Six bits can represent 64 different things. However, there are only 21 amino acids in the human genome. And there are three stops. This means that of the 64 possible outcomes, there are only 22 actual outcomes. Obviously there is redundancy. If nature has selected a particular redundancy, does it also favor RNA encodings which support the probability that it favors?

In Computer Science, where there is redundancy, there is often error correction. Does this hold true in genetics? If so, are their sequences of RNA which will not fold because they are erroneous or error prone. In other words, even though they are technically supposed to fold from a charge standpoint, they will not fold in nature because there is a less worthy quality in their arrangement.

These sort of questions (and possibly too much caffeine late in the day) keep me awake at night.